By Jace Stroup Staff Writer
This year’s NBA trade deadline was quite possibly the most exciting, confusing and bizarre deadline in the history of the league. Records were set in terms of the number of players moved to different teams and the whole of social media was set ablaze with blockbuster trade after blockbuster trade being announced every other hour. Not to mention the wildest and most controversial trade in the history of sports going down just a couple days before the conclusion of trade season. With all of this player movement there is a lot to assess. The most prominent question could be, who won the trade deadline, and who lost it? That exact question will be covered here for your reading pleasure.
The Winners and Losers of the 2025 NBA Trade Deadline:
When looking at the results of the trade deadline once all the dust has finally settled, a fan’s first thought may be, “how can I tell which teams did well and which teams did a poor job?”. This could be looked at in multiple ways. Maybe the teams that did well simply traded for the best players available on the market, or maybe they were able to extract the best value out of their assets. It’s possible a team did well by not overreacting to pressure to make a move, and simply not making a move. Or maybe a team committed to a direction that they want to take their franchise in the future, whether that be buying into their young core or bolstering their roster with talent to surround their aging stars. All of these things, however, could also be viewed negatively based on which moves were or were not made and more specifically which players were involved in the deals. So here are three teams that were winners at the deadline, and three teams that ended the trade season as definitive losers.
3 Winners:
San Antonio Spurs – The Spurs entered the deadline with few moves they could make
that could significantly help their chances at winning more games as they focused on attempting a late season push into the NBA play-in tournament. However, fortunes shift quickly in the NBA, and when word started circulating that the Sacramento Kings were open to dealing their All-NBA point guard De’Aaron Fox at the trade window, the Spurs leapt at the opportunity to acquire him. After the Kings opted to fire their head coach Mike Brown in late December, they felt their roster was in need of a retooling from the top down, and they no longer saw Fox as a part of their future. Within two weeks Fox was a Spur, for the Spurs this was a masterful move and a no-brainer deal, especially considering they weren’t forced to part ways with any of their young core. They managed to keep rookie guard Stephon Castle, and three young forwards in Keldon Johnson, Jeremy Sochan and Devin Vassell, all of which the Spurs view as players integral to their success in the future. The most intriguing aspect of this deal is the new pairing of Fox, and second-year superstar Victor Wembanyama in the deal. Both players fit each other’s timelines perfectly and will be one of if not the most elite 1-2 punch the Western Conference has to offer for years to come.
Cleveland Cavaliers – Cleveland up to the trade deadline had been arguably the NBA’s most dominant team and it showed as they held a 39-10 record entering the trade deadline on February 6, good for first place in the Eastern Conference standings. The Cavaliers made one trade at the deadline, but it was significant enough to land them a spot on this list. Within the final 2 hours before the deadline hit, the Cavs were able to swing a deal to acquire Atlanta’s Deandre Hunter in exchange for Caris Levert and Georges Niang. Hunter makes the East’s top team even more lethal heading into the postseason, averaging nearly 19 points per game this season and shooting upwards of 40 percent from the three-point line, while also being one of the best defenders at the forward position across the NBA. Adding Hunter to the Cavaliers roster gives them arguably the most depth and versatility at the wing position in the entire league. They now own names like Deandre Hunter, as well as Isaac Okoro, Dean Wade, Ty Jerome, and long-range snipers Max Strus and Sam Merrill. Hunter has been known as a clutch time killer since his days at the University of Virginia and the Cavaliers hope he can provide more of those moments and elite defensive play against opposing forwards heading into the playoffs. The Cavs are gunning for the title of Eastern Conference Champions and to do that they’ll have to go through the Boston Celtics who bolster the best wing duo in the NBA with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Deandre Hunter gives them a much better shot at their goal, this is an A+ move for Cleveland.
Los Angeles Lakers – The Lakers are the final entry on this list and unanimously the biggest winners at this year’s NBA trade deadline. Los Angeles looked as if it was poised to enter and exit the deadline with another year of inactivity. There wasn’t an obvious move to be made, and the Lakers seemed to be on a collision course for another first or second round exit come playoff time. An aging Lebron James and oft-injured Anthony Davis can only take a team so far in today’s NBA. Then late at night on Feb. 1st, all hell broke loose in the basketball world. A report that the Dallas Mavericks were reportedly on the verge of trading franchise cornerstone Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers. A report so preposterous and ridiculous that social media believed the NBA insiders providing the information were simply hacked. But they weren’t. Luka Doncic was traded to the Lakers for Anthony Davis, Max Christie, Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris, in what is the most shocking trade in the history of professional sports. Lakers GM Rob Pelinka was immediately hailed as a hero by the Los Angeles fanbase for this seemingly genius fleece job of the Dallas Mavericks. Whether Pelinka is a genius or simply the beneficiary of the stupidity and total incompetence of Dallas GM Nico Harrison, matters not. All that matters is that Luka Doncic is now a Laker and has been paired with Lebron James for what’s sure to be a fascinating run at the NBA title in James’ few remaining years in the league.
3 Losers:
Miami Heat – When Miami Heat superstar Jimmy Butler shockingly requested a trade earlier this season, not many could have predicted the saga of reports and drama which would soon follow. Suspensions, fines and threats to deny his trade request were all issued to Butler by Miami Heat GM Pat Riley. This changed nothing for Butler though, as he stuck to his guns and refused to ever play for the Miami Heat organization again. Butler was eventually traded to the Golden State Warriors a day before the trade deadline and has happily played in the Bay Area ever since. Although the Heat were able to offload the disgruntled Butler at the deadline, they failed to extract any significant value from the trade, receiving only forward Andrew Wiggins, forward Kyle Anderson and 39-year-old P.J. Tucker, along with Golden States 2025 first-round pick. Although Wiggins is a solid player for a team in a win-now mindset, his fit is questionable on this disjointed Miami squad. With the acquisition of Butler, Golden State’s first round pick will likely not fall in the lottery when the NBA Draft comes around which further speaks to the lack of value Miami received in dealing Butler. A player of Jimmy Butler’s skill and prestige certainly should’ve brought in a more significant haul, and fans of the Heat will surely start to doubt Pat Riley’s ability to create championship level rosters.
Portland Trail Blazers – Going into the deadline Portland was seen as a team ready to make big moves in multitudes in order to buy into their young core of promising players. Before the trade deadline the Blazers were the hottest team in the NBA holding a record of 10-1 in their last eleven games sparked by the play of young guards Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe, both lottery picks in each of the last two drafts. After a rough year last season in which the rookie Henderson greatly struggled to match expectations for himself and the public, he was starting to show flashes of the highly touted superstar talent that was advertised before he was drafted. Sharpe, coming off of his second campaign last season where he dealt with lingering shoulder issues has looked primed to take over the role as the team’s leading scorer. Portland also has a spectacular young forward duo in the second year defensive phenom Toumani Camara and the explosive Deni Avdija. Their young core is topped off with the best center in this last year’s draft, Donovan Clingan who was a back-to-back national champion with UConn in the NCAA. All signs pointed toward Portland moving off of veteran players such as Jerami Grant and Robert Williams III, who had become redundant on a roster full of superior talent. Instead, the Trail Blazers were one of only five teams to not make a trade in the entirety of this trade season. Portland failed for a second straight year to find value in their assets which they no longer needed while also not asking too much for what they had. In failing to choose a direction for their franchise moving into the offseason, there is much uncertainty for what the future holds for Trail Blazer basketball. Blazers fans can only hope that general manager Joe Cronin truly has a plan for the future, otherwise this is an extremely bad look for the Portland Trail Blazers.
Dallas Mavericks – The Mavericks lost this deadline simply because they gave up on their franchise player Luka Doncic. Doncic is quite possibly the most potent offensive weapon in the NBA right now and likely will be for the rest of his career. Even at the young age of 26 he stacks up among the all-time NBA greats in statistics and wins. He had been selected to the All-NBA First Team five years in a row and just last year had led the Dallas Mavericks to the brink of an NBA Championship before losing in the NBA Finals to the Boston Celtics. Many saw this as the necessary path forward for Luka, having to traverse and endure adversity before eventually hitting the peak of his powers and winning an NBA Title with the Dallas Mavericks as the undisputed best player in the world. It almost seemed inevitable. But the Dallas Mavericks gave up on Doncic and traded him for an aging Anthony Davis who, as great as he is, a unanimous top ten player in the league, is unable to stay healthy for long periods of time. The Mavericks cited concerns with Luka’s conditioning, his weight getting up to almost 270 pounds at one-point last season. Nothing, however excuses Dallas for the decision they made. In no universe should they have traded Doncic. Now the Mavericks have a bigger problem on their hands, they are losing the loyalty of their fan base. Mavericks GM Nico Harrison has broken the trust he had with Dallas fans, and it will most likely never be gained back, no matter how well Anthony Davis performs, and he now holds the dubious achievement of orchestrating the most controversial trade in sports history. If there was a trade grade to give lower than an F, then the Mavericks would have earned it and then some with this move.
So, with the meat of the trade deadline being covered and discussed, there is nothing left to do but look forward to the rest of this season and what it holds. Player movement and trades are some of the best parts about the NBA and it’s so interesting to try to predict how certain players will perform on their new teams. The playoffs begin in April, right around the corner. Hopefully the remainder of this NBA season is just as exciting and entertaining as the last.
ECC Cornerstone 